Last.fm no longer free

In what can only be described as a terrible move, Last.fm, one of the traditional bastions of free streaming music, has decided that they will begin charging money to use it.

But only if you live outside the US, UK, and Germany. An odd combination of countries, I guess, but understandable at the same time. They hope that charging €3.00 per month will on be too much, and will hopefully tremendously increase their revenue.

Though, according to their own stats:

“We appreciate the support we get from the 30 million people who use Last.fm every month—double the number of people since this time last year.”

It’s common sense that this number will go down if it’s not free. In theory though, if even 1 million listeners pay that subscription fee, that’s still a tremendous amount of revenue for a small company.

So, Last.fm, we here at 4080 Records bid you goodbye. You were a fun widget for us to host, and for a while you entertained us. But sadly you’ve gone the commercial way, and during a recession no less. Here’s hoping that at least some people have the discretionary income to spend on you.